Toshiba pursues missing link

The PC/laptop manufacturer is reaching out to the youth with its latest stylish range of products.

Beginning 2013, PC/laptop manufacturer Toshiba has changed its positioning from being just a bankable Japanese product to a stylish and dependable product. The brand aims to reach out to the Indian youth who are aspirational and want a reliable product with style quotient.

To achieve this, Toshiba has rolled out a pan-India print campaign, 'Awesome Inside Out', which spreads awareness about its products.

The company recently ventured onto the social media platform realising the importance of the medium in building a conversation with the youth. Beginning November 2013, it launched an FB page and has come up with a campaign titled 'Curious case of missing files'.

As a part of this campaign, Toshiba has launched a video with a boy and a girl in a college campus setting, with a Toshiba laptop. The video initially shows the boy trying to get close to the girl by talking about the laptop but suddenly, the picture changes to the boy dancing in a pub at the gunpoint of gangsters. T leaves one wondering what happened in between.

Toshiba has launched a contest around this video. It invites viewers to share what they think could have happened in between. The missing part of the video will be shot from among the best entries received during the contest.

Till now, Toshiba claims to have got more than 1000 responses and expects more. The last date for sending in entries is December 25 and the final video will be produced by the second week of January, 2014. Till the filing of this report, the video garnered nearly 37,000 FB likes.

Speaking about the initiative, Abhishek Mehta, head, marketing communications, Toshiba India, says, "We wanted to come up with something that is not cold and static but something that is engaging and entertaining. So that youth participate in our activities. We wanted to reach out to the youth.

He adds that although the company is a recent entrant on social media, the response has been very good.

The creatives for the campaign were designed by Dentsu Marcom while the digital mandate is handled by Webchutney.

Toshiba is promoting the video using the YouTube and Facebook, though it did not comment on the success rates received through organic and paid advertising.

The media buying duties of the brand are handled by DWA Media.

Till date, Toshiba FB page has more than 100,000 likes and more than 40,000 people are talking about it. The brand will release two other similar videos, but in different environments, in 2014.

In 2013, Toshiba launched four new series of laptops (C series, L series, S series and P series). Toshiba India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation Japan. It was established in September, 2001. The brand offers television, laptops, PC, home appliances, air conditioner, automation, power system, elevators, escalators, semiconductors and others.